


what I like about You

by prowlish



Series: Science Nuggets [1]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Other, Spoilers, Unrequited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 09:43:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3483536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prowlish/pseuds/prowlish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(MTMTE #38 SPOILERS!) --- Perceptor pays Brainstorm a visit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	what I like about You

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is my record for 'quickest fanfic response to media release' but the prompt shiome threw at me was too good to pass up.

The brig was dark and cool, so dimly lit that his biolights shone bright and made scuttling shadows with every twitch of his wings. There was no noise or gadgets or anything to tinker around with. Nothing to keep busy with except his own thoughts and the string of failures that preceded his capture. 

Not a grand way to spend time. Brainstorm loathed it, in fact, and it was an irony that did not escape him.

“Still fidgeting.”

Brainstorm looked up. Perceptor, standing outside the bars, lit by the glow of the containment field and his own biolights. Of course. Brainstorm snorted and dipped his helm. “Yeah, can’t stand being in the same room as me,” he remarked.

Perceptor hummed. “You’re always in motion. Talking, fidgeting, tinkering, tapping your pedes, flicking your wings, even humming… It is infuriatingly distracting.”

_“Brainstorm could you cease fidgeting… I cannot concentrate.”_

Brainstorm smirked behind his mask. “Poor, poor Percy,” he said, clucking his glossa in a noise that surely would’ve driven Chromedome mad. “Come down here to gloat, then?”

Perceptor tilted his helm. “No,” he replied. He seemed to be pondering his words, though the pause was still only a split second. “It’s your invention. It’s -- brilliant. Nearly killed us all, of course, but -- the paradox clips? _Genius_.”

Brainstorm gawped at him for a full minute before he let a stuttered blast out of his vents. “W-well, _of course_ it is,” he said, his wings almost wagging on his back. “Guess you’ve been admiring it, huh?”

A brief smile passed over Perceptor’s lips as he crossed his arms. “I have been making a thorough study, yes,” he replied. “I’ve also been told that your intentions with it were much more, ah… altruistic than anyone could have expected. Especially from a Decepticon.” He arched an optic ridge.

Brainstorm snorted. “Some flawed logic there, innit?” he said. “ _You_ should know that good and evil aren’t even quantifiable, but the distinction _especially_ isn’t drawn across faction lines.”

Another tilt of Perceptor’s helm. “True, but you have to admit, building a time machine in order to travel to the past and prevent the war from ever happening is an… _unusual_ motive for a Decepticon.”

“Maybe,” Brainstorm said. His wings twitched. “And Rewind told you nothing else?”

“Rewind?” Perceptor repeated. “It was Rodimus who told everything in… ‘epic’ style.” Perceptor’s _expression_ and the air quotes nearly rivaled Ratchet. 

“Ah. Right. Of course.” Good, he thought, his fingers running over a knee guard. At least _that_ wasn’t why Perceptor was here.

“Why? Are you holding something back?” Perceptor pursued.

Brainstorm looked up again. “Me? I would never!” He grinned again. “Your eye-piece is smudged, by the way.”

Perceptor huffed. “It is not,” he said, reaching up to it automatically despite his protest. Brainstorm snickered. “You’re always acting like you know something more. And anyway, your facemask is crooked.”

Brainstorm made an almost affronted noise. “I was hit by a time traveling grenade!” he protested. “And I didn’t say _anything_ about the dent in your nose.” His plating bristled as he flicked his wings again.

“Megatron _punched me_ and I haven’t exactly had time to go to medical!” 

Brainstorm blinked. “He _punched you_? Slag, if I’d known I could have written something embarrassing on his skidplate back in the past or something.”

There was an odd, tense bubble of silence between them -- until it was broken by a little titter from Perceptor, and Brainstorm dissolved into all out laughter. Despite where they were, and all the events leading up to this point, for a moment the brig felt warm and light. One leg crossed over the other, Brainstorm rested his elbow on a knee, his hand jostling the loose facemask as he settled.

There were so many things to think about. So many things that he could tell Perceptor, and the mech would likely listen. That was… comforting. And yet...

“Well, anyway, I can’t blame you for being so impressed by my genius that you skipped medical to come down here.” Brainstorm said, golden optics glinting. 

Perceptor cleared his vocalizer. “That is _not_ what I said.”

“Oh but the implications are _all there_ , Perceptor!”

Watching Perceptor fuss with the eye-piece while scolding him for his presumptuousness was enough to make Brainstorm glad that the mask, crooked as it was, still concealed most of his expression. _“Really, must you misrepresent everything in such a way!”_ The voice was nowhere near the same, but the accent was spot on, each inflection a sharp hook in his spark -- a wound and a healing balm, all in one.

**Author's Note:**

> WELL this isn't as soul crushing as it could have been but I was already hurting too much. 
> 
> Title is an ironic twist of some fun things I was [tweeting about](https://twitter.com/decepticats/status/573278170989780992) after completing this fic, in order to have good, happy feelings, yanno.
> 
> (quiet sobbing in the distance)
> 
> visit me on [@prowlish](https://twitter.com/prowlish) on twitter!! :)


End file.
